in poverty. girls a lot like a young oprah winfrey. >> at the time that i grew up in mississippi, it was very much like south africa. it was apartheid mississippi. it was. and segregated schools, no running water, no electricity. which was just the way, you don't think, oh, gee, everybody else has it and i don't. that's just the way i grew up. it's amazing that i've come from that to my own ipad. >> reporter: the girls and their families understood the life-altering gift of education. >> you will be a part of the very first class of the oprah winfrey -- >> reporter: in a setting so luxurious, simple amenities were cause for celebration. one of the moments that i thought so captures the gap that you are trying to bridge with these girls when is they react to the plumbing. >> ah, yeah, that is still one of my favorite moments. >> reporter: me, too. >> talk about favorite things. they were most excited, of course, about the plumbing, because it means i can take a shower, i don't have to go and find buckets of water that is one or two kilometers away. i don't have to share a pump on a yard with 5